CINEMA
Elmer Gantry. Sinclair Lewis' notorious 1927 novel about a conman of religion is in many ways better on the screen than it was as a book. Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons and Arthur Kennedy are surrounded by the rich, authentic flavor of tent-show evangelism.
Psycho. Hitchcock's latest, though sometimes heavyhanded, is still a highly effective Grand Guignol show.
Hiroshima, Mon Amour. (French). A poetic, sometimes slow depiction of Hiroshima as a Calvary of the Atomic Age, where the heroine is reborn through love.
The Apartment. The riotous plight of a junior executive whose too-convenient apartment is used by his amorous bosses for their affairs and by Producer-Director-Writer Billy Wilder to show his cynically sentimental view of human nature.
Bells Are Ringing. A mediocre musical with a silly book is worth seeing only for the wonderfully talented Judy Holliday as the switchboard operator who hopes to plug in on a receptive party.
TELEVISION
More and more, this is the season of "TV to Read a Good Book By." Except for the Republican Convention, there is precious little this week beyond 1 ) reruns and 2) specious summer fill-ins:
Wed., July 27 Republican National Convention (CBS and ABC from 7:30 p.m., NBC from 8:30 p.m.).* Adoption of platform, nominating and balloting for the presidential candidate.
Thurs., July 28 Republican National Convention (CBS and ABC from 7:30 p.m., NBC from 8:30 p.m.). Barring a log jam of other business, the nominations and voting for the vice-presidential nominee, followed by the acceptances.
Fri., July 29 Moment of Fear (NBC, 10-11 p.m.).
A reporter covers the trial of a dictator's assassin in Touch of Guilt, adapted from an Eric Ambler novel. Color.
Sat., July 30 Wide World 60 (NBC, 9:30-10:30 p.m.). An assemblage of 55,000 Boy Scouts and Comedian Herb Shriner commemorate the 50th anniversary of U.S. scouting at a Colorado Springs jamboree.
Mon., Aug. 1 Celebrity Talent Scouts (CBS, 9-9:30 p.m.). A summer-replacement amateur hour conducted by Sam Levenson, with medium-sized-name guests. This week: Phil Silvers and Ann Sheridan.
The Spike Jones Show (CBS, 9:30-10 p.m.). The City Slicker with Mrs. Jones (Singer Helen Grayco).
New Comedy Showcase (CBS 10-10:30 p.m.). Another seasonal pinchhitter, with George Murphy and Martha Scott featured in the opener.
THEATER
Nothing new in sight till September. In the meantime, the fittest shows survive both heat and familiarity. Among the musicals still leg-kicking: West Side Story, about street-fighting Montagues and Capulets; Fiorello!, a lively reminiscence of the Little Flower; and Bye Bye Birdie, a romp about a rock-'n'-roll groaner. On the dramatic side, there are The Miracle Worker, the story of the child Helen Keller and her teacher, superbly played by Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke; The Tenth Man, Paddy Chayefsky's modern use of ancient Jewish mysticism; and Toys in the Attic, the savage piece about three women v. a spineless ne'er-do-well.
Off Broadway
Downtown the summer has also tended to separate the sheep from the turkeys, and the chosen flock includes The Connection, a Pirandelloesque potpourri about junkies at a New York tea party; The Prodigal, the tale of an Orestes who seeks coexistence; and Little Mary Sunshine, the smash-hit parody of vintage operetta. And in Central Park: Shakespeare's Measure for Measure--under the stars, and gratis.
Straw Hat
Kennebunkport, Me., Playhouse: Tallulah Bankhead in the 1926 Pulitzer prizewinner, Craig's Wife.
Brunswick, Me., Summer Playhouse: Lawrence Brooks and Jean Shea have a real nice clambake in Carousel.
Fitchburg, Mass., Lake Whalom Playhouse: Eve Arden in Goodbye Charlie.
Orleans, Mass., Arena: A Time for Love, a new play by Marvin Rosenberg.
Ivoryton, Conn., Playhouse: Susan and God and Joan Fontaine.
Wallingford, Conn., Oakdale Musical Theater: Genevieve, who broke her leg in a musical tent production last year, tries her luck in Silk Stockings.
Stratford, Conn.: Twelfth Night, The Tempest and Antony and Cleopatra.
Nyack, N.Y, Tappan Zee Playhouse: Make a Million with Sam Levene.
Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Spa Summer Theater: Janet Gaynor in The Dark at the Top of the Stairs.
Devon, Pa., Valley Forge Music Fair: The Student Prince, with James Melton behind the tankard.
Mountainhome, Pa., Pocono Playhouse: Shirley Booth lamenting The Late Christopher Bean.
Washington, D.C., Carter Barren Amphitheater: Nancy Walker in Wonderful Town.
Traverse City, Mich., Cherry County Playhouse: Jill Corey in Sabrina Fair.
Evergreen Park, Ill., Drury Lane Theater: A pre-Broadway tryout of Abracadabra livened by Hermione Gingold.
Hillside, Ill., Melody Top Theater: Dennis Day in the Brigadoon gloaming.
Seattle, Wash., Cirque Playhouse: John Carradine as the temperamental conductor in Once More, with Feeling.
Sacramento, Calif., Music Circus: Sterling Holloway in The Wizard of Oz.
Stratford, Canada: Romeo and Juliet, King John and Midsummer Night's Dream.
BOOKS
Best Reading
Lament for a City, by Henry Beetle Hough. An unsentimental novel about the decay of a New England town and its newspaper--by a veteran journalist and mercifully minus a Metalious ring.
The Cheerful Day, by Nan Fairbrother.
Life with mother and two boys in London, painted perceptively and placidly--an antidote for Spockmarked parents.
The Paratrooper of Mechanic Avenue, by Lester Goran. A portrait of a young hood, this uncommonly good first novel is at its snarling best when describing the wrong side of the Pittsburgh tracks.
Dictionary of American Slang, compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner. The best Baedeker of billingsgate and other U.S. lingua frank since Mencken.
Mani, by Patrick Leigh Fermor. A memorable portrait of the enduring people who inhabit Greece's Peloponnesus, a sort of mythical rock garden of the gods.
Collected Poems, by Lawrence Durrell.
The novelist (Justine, Balthazar) makes his appearance as a poet with technical flash and soaring imagery.
When the Kissing Had to Stop, by Constantine FitzGibbon. A chilling piece of political science fiction about how England turns into a Soviet satellite.
Thomas Wolfe, by Elizabeth Nowell.
A vigorous if repetitive biography of the undisciplined American Conrad who lived, loved and wrote to excess, and overflows his own portrait's frame.
Merry Monarch, by Hesketh Pearson.
A witty, partisan study of Charles II, who, often dismissed as a libertine and a fool, is here assessed as "the sanest and most civilized of monarchs." Daughters and Rebels, by Jessica Mitford. An often touching, always entertaining account of the famed Mitford sisters, who loved too unwisely and too well, both in personal and political affairs.
Best Sellers
FICTION 1. The Leopard, Di Lampedusa (2)* 2. Advise and Consent, Drury (3) 3. Hawaii, Michener (1) 4. The Chapman Report, Wallace (4) 5. The View from the Fortieth Floor, White (9) 6. The Affair, Snow (5) 7. Water of Life, Robinson (7) 8. The Constant Image, Davenport (8) 9. Trustee from the Toolroom, Shute 10. Clea, Durrell NONFICTION 1. May This House Be Safe from Tigers, King (2) 2. Born Free, Adamson ( 1 ) 3. Folk Medicine, Jarvis (3) 4. I Kid You Not, Paar (4) 5. Felix Frankfurter Reminisces, Frankfurter with Phillips (6) 6. How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market, Darvas 7. Mr. Citizen, Truman (5) 8. The Night They Burned the Mountain, Dooley (7) 9. The Conscience of a Conservative, Gold water (9) 10. The Law and the Profits, Parkinson
* All times E.D.T. *Position on last week's list.
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